"They go into a community, they throw some grenades and we as churches are left to clean up the mess."

With only about 40 members, the church from Topeka, Kan., manages to stir up controversy everywhere they preach -- and earlier this month, that was in Polk County.

Known for protesting at military funerals and their anti-homosexual beliefs, Westboro members were outside The Lakeland Center on June 1, and then back the next morning outside Lakeland churches with signs covered with hate messages.

Dozens of people from around Polk County showed up at the pickets to counter-protest Westboro's beliefs, holding signs emphasizing messages of love.

But through all the conflicting messages, the shouting and honking car horns, one thing came through: Westboro members know how to get attention. And they get attention for reasons that many local churches don't support.

"We wish that people in the world could understand that they call themselves a church and Baptists, but that's not who most of us are," said Stacey Ethridge, worship pastor with Kathleen Baptist Church of Lakeland.

Many people would be surprised at what local churches are actually doing, he said.

With various missions and different community outreach programs, a lot of churches have a concrete place in helping their communities, said Mike Morrow, director of community relations for the Lake Wales Care Center.

The care center is a faith-based organization that has been in Lake Wales for 28 years and provides a place for local churches to support transitional housing, Meals on Wheels, thrift stores, emergency services and a free health clinic, Morrow said.

But Ethridge said recent headlines can give people a negative view of churches. People read of corrupt pastors or parish scandals and have a skewed idea of what is actually going on inside churches.

"We try and counter that culture to say there's a better way -- there's a lot more going on here than what's in the headlines," Ethridge said.

And although church membership, such as at Kathleen Baptist, are a lot bigger than the eight to 20 Westboro members who were at the Lakeland protests, their members' work usually goes unnoticed, he said.

But it's not just the Baptist churches that are trying to change the image that groups, such as Westboro, create. Those hate groups put a negative slant on all churches and God, said Brad Bennett, pastor at Auburndale Community Church.

"This is America, and people have freedom to do what they want, but we need to make sure that people know not all Christians are nutcases," Bennett said.

CREATING COMMUNITY

The back room of Mt. Tabor Baptist Church is normally used for vacation bible school and other youth group activities, but the first Thursday of each month a team of volunteers turn it into a makeshift fruit stand.

Early Thursday morning, Gilmore and volunteers, pick up pallets of fresh produce from Agape Food Bank in Lakeland and set up for people to come "shop" from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. -- except they not accept money. The church gives everything away for free to anyone who needs it.

The fruit and vegetable stand started in May. Gilmore said the church gave away 2,000 pounds of fresh food at their first stand. This month, the church nearly doubled that, giving away 3,500 pounds to 130 people, with an estimate of about 675 total family members.

Last month, the stand ran out of the produce, which ranges from tomatoes, lettuce, squash, celery, peppers and potatoes to cantaloupe, apricots, grapes and bananas, Gilmore said. This month, they had almost 20 people waiting for the doors to open, he said.

Mt. Tabor Church purchases the produce from Agape to help feed people in the area who can't afford fresh food. In addition to the monthly produce stand, the church also has a food pantry with pre-made boxes for families to take if they need help.

"We're trying to help the community," Gilmore said. "We're trying to feed the people here. We're trying to spread love here. And we're trying to spread hope."

The church donates any extra food to Kathleen Baptist Church to help with its homeless program, the Hope Center, Gilmore said. This month, Gilmore gave Kathleen Baptist 435 pounds of fresh produce.

It's about working together and helping the bigger community, he said.

"We're trying to make a difference in Lakeland," he said.

And churches are doing that all over Polk County.

Bennett said about 15 percent of Auburndale Community Church's budget goes right back to the community through different missions.

The church has a food pantry, which gets donations from Agape and the United States Department of Agriculture, Bennett said, and it has helped pay rent, electric bills and medical bills for people in need.

Bennett said the church will be breaking ground on a new building in Auburndale this fall, which should help the members get even more involved with the community. During football season, the church feeds Auburndale High School's teams before games. And, Bennett said, the church is looking into hosting after-school reading programs again.

"We're about community and doing positive stuff," he said.

DIFFERENT DONATIONS

Some smaller churches don't always have money to help pay people's bills, but they can help in donating other ways, Gilmore said.

Mt. Tabor Baptist has 70 to 90 members and a small operating budget, but Gilmore said the church is able to donate food, so it donates as much of it as it can.

When Polk State College started renovating the Lake Wales campus, The Church of the Good Shepherd opened its facility for different groups to use as meeting spaces.

Tom Seitz, rector of the parish, said the church has music groups and community support groups and organization that regularly use its spaces free of charge.

The church hosts an AARP tax service three days a week each spring, Seitz said, where people can get their taxes done for free. Last year, it serviced 600 to 700 households.

Church of the Good Shepherd also operates one of the largest and oldest thrift shops in Lake Wales, Seitz said. It started in 1928, and is now on its fourth and fifth generations of customers.

Aburndale Community Church has a very active Christian Patriots group that waves flags around the community to show support for the U.S. troops, Bennett said.

Kathleen Baptist Church sponsors two community mission groups: English as a Second Language class and Grief Share, a group for people who are experiencing a recent loss, Ethridge said.

But those programs are just a small piece of what all the churches are doing to support the communities they're in.

"We're just one church, but I think you'll find that all the churches are doing a lot," Ethridge said. "And it's just business as usual for us."

Even with groups such as Westboro giving a hateful image of what some local churches stand for, the churches are going to continue to volunteer time and space, while donating clothes, food and money for community missions.

"We just want to let the community know that we're here," Gilmore said. "And we're not the judgmental people, some might think we are."

[ Stephanie Allen can be reached at stephanie.allen@theledger.com or 863-802-7550. ]

<p>LAKELAND | About two weeks ago, members of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church came to Lakeland, protested outside several high school graduations and churches, and then left.</p><p>Their confrontational tactics and strident messages, such as "God Hates America," left some local church leaders feeling like they need to set their own message apart.</p><p>"We call them grenade droppers," Matt Gilmore, pastor at Mt. Tabor Baptist Church of Lakeland said.</p><p>"They go into a community, they throw some grenades and we as churches are left to clean up the mess."</p><p>With only about 40 members, the church from Topeka, Kan., manages to stir up controversy everywhere they preach -- and earlier this month, that was in Polk County.</p><p>Known for protesting at military funerals and their anti-homosexual beliefs, Westboro members were outside The Lakeland Center on June 1, and then back the next morning outside Lakeland churches with signs covered with hate messages.</p><p>Dozens of people from around Polk County showed up at the pickets to counter-protest Westboro's beliefs, holding signs emphasizing messages of love.</p><p>But through all the conflicting messages, the shouting and honking car horns, one thing came through: Westboro members know how to get attention. And they get attention for reasons that many local churches don't support.</p><p>"We wish that people in the world could understand that they call themselves a church and Baptists, but that's not who most of us are," said Stacey Ethridge, worship pastor with Kathleen Baptist Church of Lakeland.</p><p>Many people would be surprised at what local churches are actually doing, he said.</p><p>With various missions and different community outreach programs, a lot of churches have a concrete place in helping their communities, said Mike Morrow, director of community relations for the Lake Wales Care Center.</p><p>The care center is a faith-based organization that has been in Lake Wales for 28 years and provides a place for local churches to support transitional housing, Meals on Wheels, thrift stores, emergency services and a free health clinic, Morrow said.</p><p>But Ethridge said recent headlines can give people a negative view of churches. People read of corrupt pastors or parish scandals and have a skewed idea of what is actually going on inside churches.</p><p>"We try and counter that culture to say there's a better way -- there's a lot more going on here than what's in the headlines," Ethridge said.</p><p>And although church membership, such as at Kathleen Baptist, are a lot bigger than the eight to 20 Westboro members who were at the Lakeland protests, their members' work usually goes unnoticed, he said.</p><p>But it's not just the Baptist churches that are trying to change the image that groups, such as Westboro, create. Those hate groups put a negative slant on all churches and God, said Brad Bennett, pastor at Auburndale Community Church.</p><p>"This is America, and people have freedom to do what they want, but we need to make sure that people know not all Christians are nutcases," Bennett said.</p><p><b>CREATING COMMUNITY</b></p><p>The back room of Mt. Tabor Baptist Church is normally used for vacation bible school and other youth group activities, but the first Thursday of each month a team of volunteers turn it into a makeshift fruit stand.</p><p>Early Thursday morning, Gilmore and volunteers, pick up pallets of fresh produce from Agape Food Bank in Lakeland and set up for people to come "shop" from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. -- except they not accept money. The church gives everything away for free to anyone who needs it.</p><p>The fruit and vegetable stand started in May. Gilmore said the church gave away 2,000 pounds of fresh food at their first stand. This month, the church nearly doubled that, giving away 3,500 pounds to 130 people, with an estimate of about 675 total family members.</p><p>Last month, the stand ran out of the produce, which ranges from tomatoes, lettuce, squash, celery, peppers and potatoes to cantaloupe, apricots, grapes and bananas, Gilmore said. This month, they had almost 20 people waiting for the doors to open, he said.</p><p>Mt. Tabor Church purchases the produce from Agape to help feed people in the area who can't afford fresh food. In addition to the monthly produce stand, the church also has a food pantry with pre-made boxes for families to take if they need help.</p><p>"We're trying to help the community," Gilmore said. "We're trying to feed the people here. We're trying to spread love here. And we're trying to spread hope."</p><p>The church donates any extra food to Kathleen Baptist Church to help with its homeless program, the Hope Center, Gilmore said. This month, Gilmore gave Kathleen Baptist 435 pounds of fresh produce.</p><p>It's about working together and helping the bigger community, he said.</p><p>"We're trying to make a difference in Lakeland," he said.</p><p>And churches are doing that all over Polk County.</p><p>Bennett said about 15 percent of Auburndale Community Church's budget goes right back to the community through different missions.</p><p>The church has a food pantry, which gets donations from Agape and the United States Department of Agriculture, Bennett said, and it has helped pay rent, electric bills and medical bills for people in need.</p><p>Bennett said the church will be breaking ground on a new building in Auburndale this fall, which should help the members get even more involved with the community. During football season, the church feeds Auburndale High School's teams before games. And, Bennett said, the church is looking into hosting after-school reading programs again.</p><p>"We're about community and doing positive stuff," he said.</p><p><b>DIFFERENT DONATIONS</b></p><p>Some smaller churches don't always have money to help pay people's bills, but they can help in donating other ways, Gilmore said.</p><p>Mt. Tabor Baptist has 70 to 90 members and a small operating budget, but Gilmore said the church is able to donate food, so it donates as much of it as it can.</p><p>When Polk State College started renovating the Lake Wales campus, The Church of the Good Shepherd opened its facility for different groups to use as meeting spaces.</p><p>Tom Seitz, rector of the parish, said the church has music groups and community support groups and organization that regularly use its spaces free of charge.</p><p>The church hosts an AARP tax service three days a week each spring, Seitz said, where people can get their taxes done for free. Last year, it serviced 600 to 700 households.</p><p>Church of the Good Shepherd also operates one of the largest and oldest thrift shops in Lake Wales, Seitz said. It started in 1928, and is now on its fourth and fifth generations of customers.</p><p>Aburndale Community Church has a very active Christian Patriots group that waves flags around the community to show support for the U.S. troops, Bennett said.</p><p>Kathleen Baptist Church sponsors two community mission groups: English as a Second Language class and Grief Share, a group for people who are experiencing a recent loss, Ethridge said.</p><p>But those programs are just a small piece of what all the churches are doing to support the communities they're in.</p><p>"We're just one church, but I think you'll find that all the churches are doing a lot," Ethridge said. "And it's just business as usual for us."</p><p>Even with groups such as Westboro giving a hateful image of what some local churches stand for, the churches are going to continue to volunteer time and space, while donating clothes, food and money for community missions.</p><p>"We just want to let the community know that we're here," Gilmore said. "And we're not the judgmental people, some might think we are."</p><p>[ Stephanie Allen can be reached at stephanie.allen@theledger.com or 863-802-7550. ]</p>